


Before the Fall

by Nightheart



Category: Juuni Kokki | Twelve Kingdoms
Genre: F/M, Prequel, how all that bullying got started, how did those two get together anyway, such a nice guy, the best of intentions, those two are sort of an odd pair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-21
Updated: 2012-10-21
Packaged: 2017-11-16 17:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/542125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightheart/pseuds/Nightheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ikuya Asano and Yuka Sugimoto... "ice-queen bookworm" and "Mister Refreshing" and odd match no matter which way you look at it. They seem like they'd go together about as well as peanut butter and mustard. Ever wonder how it came about? And how did Yuka wind up being a target for bullying anyway? A glimpse of our not-so-heroes before the events of the show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kshadeslady](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kshadeslady).



> This is the result of a post I saw on a message board somewhere in which someone expressed a desire to see a fanfic that explains how two people who don't really seem to act much like boyfriend and girlfriend during the show (Yuka rarely expresses any concern over Asano once she starts working for Kou-ou and Asano doesn't seem to worry abou her when he's with the circus) might have become an item. I tried to resolve the issue of thier cool affection towards one another by making it clear that their relationship has it share of problems under the surface. Plus I figured it was a good way to settle the question of how Yuka came to be bullied. If anyone was curious... Anyone?

“Oh hey, Sugimoto, there you are!” the jovial face of her surprise new boyfriend waved at her from one table over.

 : _Hmm, not sure about this one_ …: Yuka thought dubiously.

 Ikuya Asano looked pleased enough to see her, and his guy-pals all looked like they didn’t care one way or the other (one or two of them were even sort of checking her out) but the females in the set scented an intruder upon their rightful hunting grounds and were about as happy about it as a cat with a new puppy in the house. The looks they gave her could have felled pigeons in mid-air.

 : _Kinda wish I’d told him I had plans for lunch_ ,: Yuka thought with an internal sigh.

 Her usual spot under the tree or even better yet, that nice little seating arrangement tucked away in the stacks at the school library just off the fantasy/sci-fi section (M through P) that Yuka had staked out for her own was looking better and better by the minute.

 Yuka was one of those students interested in high school only so far as it got her into college. This high school was as prestigious as her single working mother could afford and Yuka wasn’t terribly interested in getting mixed up in all the stupid, hormone driven drama going on around her. She just kept her head down, said as little as she could politely because she preferred her books. She’d managed to get along perfectly well up until about a month ago when she’d been roped into attending some stupid pep-rally by that spineless, red-haired twit running their class. She wasn’t sure how, but she’d caught the attention of Ikuya Asano, the well-liked vice-captain of the basketball team.

 : _He couldn’t even play a manly sport I could **really** admire, like kendo_!: Yuka thought.

 

She’d exchanged maybe a few words with him when she was handing him a towel and a drink to cool himself off with. He’d been nice and friendly; Yuka had been able to see why so everyone always had something to good to say about him. He was one of those types that got along with about everybody, stuck up for weaker underclassmen, a model student, good at sports…

 

: _Like a character straight out of a shojo manga_ ,: Yuka thought humorously.

 

So not really a person that someone like Yuka would associate with usually, she wasn’t much interested in socializing and he was a social butterfly. So she’d been as surprised as everyone else when he’d been waiting for her at her locker on Monday morning and personally invited her to go to the home game that night. He’d informed her he was saving her a seat right down front, which even Yuka knew were seats reserved for players girlfriends. She’d tried desperately to think of something, _anything_ , polite to say that would get her out of it, but her mind had blanked out and her opportunity to politely turn him down disappeared as he walked away with an enthusiastic “great! See you there!”

 

: _Of course, the vice-captain of the basketball team is even **more** well-liked than the captain because he’s better looking, thus earning me the attention and enmity of every single girl in my class. Thanks for **that** one Asano-kun_!:

 

The ladies hadn’t wasted much time before cornering her and grilling her about how she knew their precious Asano-kun, and why was he asking her out when he should have been asking out so-and-so from some other class. It had been ridiculous. Yuka hadn’t been in the mood to participate in stupid, childish drama so she’d just rolled her eyes and waited for them to get over themselves… she’d been kept waiting a while.

 

: _Our class rep has to be about the most useless jellyfish I’ve ever encountered,:_ Yuka thought irritated. The girl had seen the situation, she’d seen Yuka cornered by half the girls in class, and she hadn’t done a _damn_ thing to help her out.

 

: _I take that back_ ,: Yuka thought on a moments consideration. : _At least jellyfish have stinging tentacles, if this girl ever stung anyone she’d abase herself with apologies. How in the world did she even get elected?! Someone who can’t even cut into a situation that’s clearly not right shouldn’t have authority over **anyone**._ :

 

Yuka had known then that if she stood him up, no amount of interference from the class rep was going to get her off those girls’ hit list so she’d reluctantly went to the stupid game with every intention of telling that Asano-idiot that he was causing her trouble and would he please go pick some other girl who’d make him a much better girlfriend than she would.

 

: _Sadly, that plan was a complete bust_.:

 

It had been half-time and Yuka had been bored out of her mind by the game, though the rest of the school seemed excited because it was a close game and their school had been winning. There was a stupid show involving the (rather crappy) school band, and two poor sods in furry-suits that she supposed were the school mascot (Yuka had never paid much attention). Suddenly in the middle of the damn floor there’s the idiot, Ikuya Asano with a microphone in his hand, all the guys on his team were all cheering and clapping behind him. Yuka had watched in a dismay as he pointed her right out and said he was “winning this one for her,” and if he took home to trophy or whatever she’d be his girl. The only thought running through Yuka’s mind then had been a disbelieving “you must be joking!” but apparently her utterly appalled silence meant assent, for at the end of the match the whole school declared them an official couple.

 

: _So here I am. Hang in there Yuka_!:

 

Ikuya Asano wasn’t a bad guy. She even sort of _liked_ him, he was funny. And likeable… sort of like a puppy. They’d hung out with each other twice after school after what Yuka was mentally coming to think of as The Proposal.

 

:Or maybe I should make that The Entrapment,: she thought with a slight edge of cynicism.

 

Her new boyfriend was so darn _nice,_ that it would never have occurred to him that his grand romantic gesture to really show her how much he liked her (and she was sure by now that that was truly what it had been) really amounted to social pressure to get her to go out with him. Putting her on the spot like that had pretty much guaranteed him a win. Yuka had known perfectly well that if she’d turned him down flat she’d earn the undying enmity of every single girl in the school. No girl in her right mind walked away from something right out of a fairytale, and it was well-known that Asano was perfect boyfriend material. If Yuka wanted even a semblance of peace, she knew, she’d better date him until he dumped her! He wasn’t malicious, or even calculating like that, he genuinely thought she’d appreciate the romance. Yuka didn’t have the heart to ream him about it.

 

: _It’d be too much like kicking a puppy_ ,: she thought to herself.

 

But his very public gestures of affection carried some very inconvenient consequences for her. She’d talked him into toning down his dramatic flair or whatever, but so far as Yuka was concerned, the damage was done.

 

: _I suddenly have enemies of people whose names I’ve never bothered to learn_!:

 

There was a clique of girls in her class who seemed to think of Vice-Captain Asano as somehow weirdly being their personal property. Like they were the only ones allowed to like him.

 

: _Seriously, it’s ridiculous! They make people swear allegiance to them and everything. It’s almost cult-like creepy!:_

 

Yuka and Asano had a _public_ relationship, so those girls couldn’t take her out behind the soccer shed and have at her like Yuka was pretty sure they wanted to, because people were watching so they had to pretend to play nice to keep on Asano’s good side. That didn’t mean they were barred from taking their revenge in other petty ways as long as no-one caught them at it.

 

: _You’d think that they’d be a little more creative in their bullying, deathnotes in the shoe-locker is **so** elementary school. And so easily traceable_.:

 

That was only _one_ group of students that had once ignored her, but now actively hated her. Yuka had made the mistake of snubbing the sycophants who were now trying to act like they were her new best friends just because one Ikuya Asano had decided that he and Yuka were dating. So now she was a “stuck-up bitch” to them as well. That pretty much took care of every girl in her class and some of the guys too.

 

Yuka found a seat at the end of the row next to some girl whose name she didn’t know, who turned to the rest of the girls on her other side and said something that set them all giggling… oh-so-subtly letting her know that, while she might be the boyfriend of the prince of their group, Yuka wasn’t one of them.

 

: _Oh, **real** mature ladies, and so **classy** too_ ,: Yuka thought with a sigh and an eyeroll for their antics. : _I wish I had my book_.:

 

Asano was waaaay down at the other end of the table too, laughing and cutting up with his boys. He probably thought he was doing Yuka a favor by letting her eat privately with the rest of her new best friends.

 

: _He probably thinks that us ladies have to talk about Girl Stuff, or synch our periods or whatever_.: Yuka thought with a little wry amusement.

 

He’d make the perfect boyfriend… for someone else. 

 

: _He’d probably suit someone who actually enjoys being out with people and doing high-school-ish stuff_.:

 

Yuka tended to view High School as more of a stepping stone to her eventual successful career, she wasn’t so much interested in all the childishness going on around her; she just wanted it over with quickly and painlessly so she could get on with her life. Needless to say she was not one of those sorts who felt that “high school was the best time of her life” and such.

 

: _I think these girls are having enough fun on their own, they don’t really need me here_.:

 

Seeing as she was being ignored, Yuka hurried through her bento and rose to go find her favorite spot so she could read the next chapter of her book in peace…

 

: _It was just getting good, too_!: Yuka thought with eager anticipation.

 

The sister had just beaten back the raiders who’d destroyed her brother’s wedding, and kidnapped his bride along with the gifts, and the brother was too incapacitated by the raid to go after them, so the younger sister had just resolved to ride after the poor young bride!

 

After school Yuka walked home as she normally did… that was, her nose firmly buried in the pages of her book. She had no friends, so she was surprised when she heard someone calling her name. She looked over to see Ikuya running after her, panting for breath.

 

“Hey! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” he called over to her.

 

: _And why would that be_?: Yuka thought, wondering what in the world he could want _now_. He’d already wasted most of her lunch hour (prime reading time!) with his socializing nonsense.

 

“I couldn’t find you at your locker,” he said, clearly prepared to tell her the whole damn story. “So I went and looked with the girls but they said they hadn’t seen you. I had to ask Nakajima where you were and she said you’d already left to go home. That’s pretty cold, just leaving without saying goodbye,” he said with a smile. “I think I should get extra attention for that!”

 

Yuka just looked blankly back at him.

 

“C’mon Yuka—“ he said, walking up next to her and slinging an arm around her shoulder.

 

:Ick, you’re all sweaty from basketball!: She tried not to look like she was brushing him off as she ever so carefully broke his one-armed girlfriend-hold on her by pretending she had to maneuver around a trashcan.

 

“Everyone’s waiting! I’m done with practice so we’re all meeting for karaoke. Don’t worry about the money, it’s my treat,” he assured her.

 

“That’s…” Yuka stopped herself from saying what was really her thought on the matter which was more along the lines of ‘I would hope you’d pay for me since you just assumed I was coming with you’ and settled for a more diplomatic

 

“That’s nice of you.”

 

: _So much for my book_ ,: Yuka thought resignedly.

 

Karaoke was every bit as annoying she feared it would be. There were no less than ten of them all crowded around a booth in a closet-sized room. The music was loud and mostly of the irritating idol-singer variety, which none of the girls could really pull off. She was crammed in right between her new boyfriend, and Nakajima the class-rep, whom, Yuka was dead certain was only there because she’d been “invited”. And by invited, Yuka figured that one of the girls had said “you’re coming right? We’ll be so disappointed if you don’t!” and she’d caved like a half-baked quiche. The girl spent most of the time doing what the other girls told her to. Sure, they were all phrased as requests but…

 

: _This girl just lost four respect points_ ,: Yuka thought to herself as she watched Nakajima get up and get drinks for the third time. : _The word “no” was put into the language for a reason!_ :

 

“Come on Sugimoto,” one of the girls (Yuka didn’t know her name) said with poisonous sweetness. “It’s your turn to sing!”

 

“I don’t sing,” Yuka replied flatly.

 

“You can’t come to karaoke and not sing,” she pressed, the smile widening as she scented blood in the water.

 

“I don’t perform for the unwashed masses,” Yuka said smartly.

 

“Awww, she’s shy!” another girl chimed in smiling sweetly, but Yuka could read the ‘bitch!’ in her narrowed eyes.

.

“I’m not shy, I’m holding back my awesome so that you’re not intimidated by me,” Yuka said with a perfectly straight face and bland voice.

 

The girls stared, nonplussed. The guys all started busting up and ribbing Ikuya Asano about his having “found himself a _live_ one.”

 

: _Yeah, because **that’s** the way you win a girls heart, talk about her like she’s a fish_!:

 

“How about this,” Asano said, ever the peacemaker. “Our school wins against Hokue High and Yuka sings for us. I will personally try my best, so look forward to it!”

 

The idiots actually cheered that particular gem and Yuka was forced to mentally knock the average intelligence quotient of her fellow students downward yet again.

 

“I’d hope you’d be playing your best regardless,” Yuka remarked dryly. “I mean, I assume they didn’t put you on the team just to look good.”

 

“It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it,” Asano said with his usual easy charm.

 

Suddenly his cell phone went off and Asano stood up.

 

“I’ll be right back guys, I gotta call my mom.”

 

:I knew it, I just knew he had to be a total mama’s boy!: Yuka thought with a sinking feeling in her chest.

 

While the rest of the guys jeered him out of the room, Yuka wondered if she might be able to take this opportunity to make good her escape. The Nakajima girl was off getting snacks, maybe she could pretend to go help her out then quietly slip out the back. She’d been there for an hour; that was long enough right?

 

She’d made it out of the room and down the hall when she was intercepted by her new boyfriend.

 

“Sugimoto,” he said smiling at her.

 

: _Why the hell does he always look so damn happy to see me?:_ she wondered. : _He barely knows_ _me_.:

 

“Asano,” Yuka greeted in return, debating whether or not she should claim she was heading to the ladies room.

 

“I was hoping you’d relax and have some fun but all you’ve done so far is sip coke,” he said. “You don’t have to be shy or anything, we’re all friends here.”

 

“Yeah, I can taste the friendship,” Yuka replied.

 

: _I’d really not give them any more ammunition to make fun of me with later thanks_ ,: Yuka thought.

 

It wasn’t Asano’s fault really; he got along with everyone, and everyone got along with him, so he had such an easy time being his natural refreshing self and he probably couldn’t really understand what it was like for someone like her.

 

Asano looked concerned at her acerbic answer.

 

“Did they say something to upset you?” he wanted to know.

 

“No,” Yuka said with a small smile, warmed by his concern. “It’s not them, it’s me. I’m not a huge fan of karaoke to be honest.”

 

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Asano asked. “We could have done something different.”

 

“I figured that part of being in a relationship is doing things you don’t necessarily like as much because they make your… your… er, _you_ happy,” Yuka lied, surprised by how hard a time she was having with saying the word boyfriend to his face.

 

“Aw, you didn’t have to do that for me,” he said, but he looked pretty happy about it.

 

“We’re dating, aren’t we?” Yuka said with false cheer. “I wouldn’t ask you to give up your friends for me, just don’t ask me to give up mine.”

 

“You _do_ have some!” Asano exclaimed.

 

Yuka tried not to feel insulted by how relieved he sounded.

 

_:Yeah, right now her name is Kerowyn_ ,: Yuka thought to herself.

 

She didn’t say anything like that out loud of course because it would brand her as a grade-A weirdo if she even implied that she preferred books to real people.

 

: _I wonder how strange that makes me that the characters in these books sometimes seem more real to me than the people around me_ ,: Yuka thought to herself.

 

The worlds and people that existed between the pages of a book were, for Yuka, more than an escape, they were better than everything else in her life. While she was slaying dragons with the emperors knights, or seeking the lost imperial relic, or paying Mageprice in order to save the world from the Endarkened… Yuka wasn’t just ordinary Yuka Sugimoto, somewhat nerdy schoolgirl, she was a better person, one who always knew the right thing to do and didn’t hesitate to do it.

 

“Here, let me take you home,” Ikuya offered, gallantly taking her arm as well as carrying her books for her.

 

:It’s dark out, so I might as well,: yuka thought.

 

“Thank-you,” Yuka said, then daringly, tried a smile on him.

 

“You sure look pretty when you smile,” he said, smiling widely back at her. Yuka felt a small piece of warmth spread out in inside her at the compliment.

 

:I’ve never been told that before,: she thought a little shyly. :Maybe this girlfriend thing isn’t such a bad gig after all.:

 

Sadly, she knew that in the morning she was going to have to put up with the bullying tactics of her classmates, but for now, Asano had his arm around her and was telling some amusing story about a dog he’d had as a boy. She didn’t know what in the world had triggered him into taking such an interest in her, and Yuka honestly didn’t expect it to last very long, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she let herself enjoy it while it lasted. She wouldn’t drop her guard no matter how nice he seemed (that was how her mama had wound up with her after all) but as far as it went, she’d try it out.

 

:Even if they are bullying me, I sort of get a kick out of having their precious Asano-kun as my boyfriend. Mainly because it seems to piss them all off so much, heh.:

 

Yuka couldn’t really see then working out; Asano was so nice, so personable and so easy-going and she… well… _wasn’t_. She could sense already that there were some basic incompatibilities between them, but at the same time Yuka had never had _anyone_ pay so much attention to her before and it made her feel special. Maybe she was being swept along in his momentum but Yuka figured in this case, it couldn’t hurt. She liked him, and if things were tough for her that just meant that she deserved him more than anyone else. She wanted to be special, even if it was only to one person, so until the day came when he realized she wasn’t worth it, she’d live it to the hilt. 

**Author's Note:**

> As a side note, free 12K fic to anyone who can spot the book references in the fic. And as an additional note, you won't believe it but I was on Amazon the other day and I discovered that one of my all time favorite Mercedes Lackey novels is actually translated into Japanese, making it actually possible that Yuka would indeed have read it! Yay!


End file.
